Hosanna

Sunday, March 29, 2026

The Rev. Amy Aspey

Allied Person of Faith

Quote

“The people were hoping he would be a mighty warrior chief, like their ancestor Much Loved One (David), to set them free from the People of Iron (Romans.) But he did not ride a warhorse on that day, as one might expect. Instead, he rode a small, humble donkey colt. He came weeping over the Village of Peace (Jerusalem), but even this could not silence the hopes of the crowd. The people encircle him, front and back. ‘Hosanna! Set us free!’ they shouted.’”

-Mark 11:8-9 (First Nations Version)

Devotion

On that first Palm Sunday, the gathered community was weary from the oppression of the Roman Empire. Their bodies were exhausted from living in fear of violence, hate and death. Their souls were tired from grief and heartache. It’s not hard 2,000 years later for us to imagine this kind of weariness. What words describe how you feel today?

In solidarity with the suffering of every time and place, Jesus rides into Jerusalem. Maybe, holy anger boosts Jesus onto the donkey, outrage with the unjust systems that prey on the poor, rule by domination, and glorify violence so that victory is equated with blessedness. The Blessed One, who comes in the name of the Lord, intentionally rides a donkey to symbolize peace and that the Kin-dom of God operates dramatically different from the empire. In an act of grace, Jesus rides into Jerusalem knowing that death is the outcome and is willing to die so that all might live. As a servant and not as tyrant, Jesus embodies love in ways that shock those at the first Palm Sunday and in many ways surprise us still. In what ways does Jesus surprise you?

When the crowds shout, Hosanna, this isn’t a superficial ‘praise the Lord.” It’s a cheer. But it’s not cheery. It’s a cry of praise that holds in tension desperation and hope. Hosanna is an ancient cry from the psalms that means, “Save Us.” God, save us. God, deliver us. With branches waved high, the people know that God liberated them before and this is a cry to do it again. Find a spot to shout, Hosanna, from the top of your lungs. As you shout, remember that you do not cry out alone, we cry out together. And God hears us.

Holy week is God’s response to Hosanna! It is the story of how God saves us- both all of Creation forever and ALL of us over and over and over again. Holy Week begins with Jesus riding into Jerusalem armed with nothing but love. This wasn’t at all what the people expected.

In an indigenous translation of Mark 11:8-9, the First Nations Version says, “The people were hoping he would be a mighty warrior chief, like their ancestor Much Loved One (David), to set them free from the People of Iron (Romans.) But he did not ride a warhorse on that day, as one might expect. Instead, he rode a small, humble donkey colt. He came weeping over the Village of Peace (Jerusalem), but even this could not silence the hopes of the crowd. The people encircle him, front and back. ‘Hosanna! Set us free!’ they shouted.’”

Hosanna is a song of praise that rises out of a hope-full and weary people who are longing to be filled. Hosanna is a one-word hymn that is defiant about hope and shouts to God, Save us. Palm Sunday proclaims that God saves us. Not in a way that we expect but in the way that we need. And, my God, the world needs saving.

Hosanna! Jesus, save us from violence. Free us from hate. Deliver us from evil. Liberate us from an obsession with weapons. Save us from exhaustion, cynicism, and consumerism. Deliver us from racism, homophobia, Transphobia, xenophobia, and sexism. Free us from toxic relationships and participation in the perpetuation of injustice. Save us from ways of seeing the world that aren’t aligned with Your vision for us.

Reflection

What makes you cry out? Hosanna!

Action

I wonder if as Jesus prepared himself to enter Jerusalem, he centers himself with the reminder that his identity as Beloved Child of God will survive even this. Look at your beautiful face in the mirror and trust that your identity as Beloved Child of God will survive, too. Always.

Welcome to Holy Week where a weary and defiantly hope-full people cry out and Jesus shows us that Love saves us, every. Single. Time. Hosanna!

Growing in the Cracks

The Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp

LGBTQIA+ Person of Faith

Executive Director, LOVEboldly

Quote

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”

-John 15:5 (NRSV)

Devotion

Every day I walk past a tree in my neighborhood that shouldn’t exist. It’s rooted in a crack in the sidewalk, no more than three inches wide, surrounded by concrete on all sides. By every reasonable measure, it should have withered years ago. And yet every spring, leaves sprout and the tree grows stubbornly toward the sun.

When Jesus talks about being the vine and us being the branches, I think about that tree. I think about all the ways we’re told we shouldn’t thrive; that our identities are incompatible with faith, that we can’t be both Queer and Christian, that we have to choose between authenticity and our faith.

We’ve been planted in impossible conditions, surrounded by systems and theologies that seem designed to keep us from flourishing.

But here’s what I’ve learned: connection to the people, places, and things that keep us grounded are the soil and water we need to flourish and God’s the sun we grow towards. That tree survives because its roots run deep, finding sustenance in places no one else can see. We survive, we grow stubbornly toward the sun, and eventually we bear fruit because we stay connected to the God who created us exactly as we are.

Abiding doesn’t mean being passive. That tree is actively pushing through concrete, doing the hard work of staying alive. Our abiding looks like refusing to abandon ourselves or our faith when people insist we must choose one or the other. It looks like finding nourishment in spirituality and community even when traditional spaces have failed us. It looks like the daily practice of returning to the truth that we belong to God, and nothing—not theology, not politics, not other people’s fear—can sever that connection.

The fruit we bear might not look like what the world expects. But it’s real. It’s ours. And it grows from a root system deeper than anyone else can see.

Reflection

1. What “impossible conditions” have you had to push through to maintain your faith and authenticity?

2. What practices or relationships help you stay connected to the Divine when everything else feels hostile or uncertain?

3. What kind of fruit has your life produced that might not be recognized or valued by traditional religious spaces?

Action

Go outside and find something growing in an unexpected place: a weed in a crack, a plant in a neglected corner, or moss on concrete. Take a photo or simply sit with it for a few minutes. Let it remind you of your own resilience.

Testimony Against HB249 - Drag Ban

Chair Thomas, Vice Chair Swearingen, Ranking Member Synenberg, and Members of the House Judiciary Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to testify in opposition to House Bill 249. My name is the Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp, and I serve as the Executive Director of LOVEboldly, an Ohio faith-based nonprofit working to create spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can flourish in Christianity. I also serve as the pastor of Blue Ocean Faith Columbus, a small, progressive Christian congregation.

As a community leader, pastor, and proud native Ohioan, I have serious concerns about HB249 and its impact on the legitimate art form of drag as well as its impact on the Transgender community in the State of Ohio. However, you have and will continue to hear from many people who can speak to those points far better than me. I want to focus on one point that is vitally important to this bill and reflects the far-reaching implications of the bill’s broad and vague language.

In defining an “adult cabaret,” HB249 states that an adult cabaret includes spaces where “Performers or entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s biological sex using clothing, makeup, prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts, or other physical markers.” Based on this definition, the public ministry of a clergy person who identifies as transgender would render their church an adult cabaret and, if people under the age of 18 were present, would make that public ministry a felony under this bill. Criminalizing public ministry is not only a violation of the First Amendment, but also a dangerous precedent.

For this reason alone, HB249 should be abandoned in this committee. And the constitutional problems I have described are only the beginning of this bill’s harms.

I urge you in the strongest possible terms to vote down HB249 and not to send the bill to the House floor.

Respectfully,

Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp +

Executive Director, LOVEboldly

Pastor, Blue Ocean Faith Columbus

bhuelskamp@loveboldly.org